The present invention relates in general to a control circuit for a dispenser. More particularly, the invention pertains to a control circuit for controlling the dispensing of fruit juices and those in which it is, in particular, desired to control the concentration thereof. Even more particularly, the invention pertains to a control system for a concentrated citrus juice dispenser in which the dispenser is adapted to mix chilled water and concentrate juice with high accuracy so as to obtain a predetermined and desired concentration of the final juice product.
In citrus juice dispensing machines, the final juice product is formed by combining concentrated citrus juice with chilled water. In mixing these two components, it has been found that the taste of the final product is a very sensitive function of the concentration of the mixing. At the present time, there are no effective techniques for closely controlling the concentration of concentrated citrus juice and as a result, under varied operating conditions one can encounter juice products that have wide ranges of concentration. This seriously effects the taste of the juice as experienced by the consumer. There is also, at the present time, no effective way of taking into account the variations that occur in the reconstituted citrus juice product. For example, there may be variations between different brands and this many times causes a change in the ultimate concentration of the drink. This is highly undesirable. Also, it is quite common for a user of the dispenser to change from one juice product to another such as from orange juice to grape juice or to apple juice. Usually when such changes are made, there is a different concentration to each juice concentrate and unless this is taken into account, the final drink product may be either too watery or too thick.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved control system for a dispensing machine in which the concentration of the fruit juice can be closely controlled and closely regulated.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a dispenser control circuit that is adapted to carry out multiple control functions associated with the dispensing of citrus or other fruit juices while at the same time being adapted to highly accurately control the concentration of the final drink product.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a dispenser control circuit as in accordance with the preceding object and in which the concentration may be manually selected and may be selected to occur over a range of concentrations including multiple individual concentrations that may be achieved.